The invention generally relates to a circuit board and slot connector assembly.
A typical computer system (a server, for example) includes removable circuit boards that are plugged into a motherboard of the system via various slot connectors. In this manner, each slot connector is mounted on the motherboard for purposes of electrically and mechanically coupling an associated circuit board to the motherboard.
A particular slot connector may include an opening, or slot, for receiving the circuit board, and inside the slot, the slot connector includes resilient electrical contacts to establish contact with corresponding electrically conductive fingers, or pads, of the circuit board for purposes of electrically coupling circuitry of the circuit board to circuitry of the motherboard. As an example, these removable circuit boards may include memory cards as well as voltage regulator module cards.
The slot connector may include a mechanism to physically secure the received circuit board to the slot connector. For example, a slot connector for a memory card may include levers that are located on the outside of the housing of the slot connector. These levers are rotated to lock a memory card (i.e., a removable circuit board) that is inserted into the slot connector in place. As another example, a slot connector that receives a voltage regulator module card (i.e., another circuit board) may include a retention clip that is mounted on the outside of the slot connector's housing. The retention clip fits over the corners of the voltage regulator module card and snaps into the connector housing to secure the card to the slot connector. For both of these arrangements, reserved space is needed on the motherboard at the ends of the connector housing to permit access to the levers/retention clip.
If a slot connector overheats, the housing of the slot connector may expand, an expansion that opens the slot that receives the circuit board. The opening of this slot, in turn, releases the tension that is exerted by the resilient electrical contacts of the slot connector on the corresponding electrical contact pads of the circuit board. As a result, the slot connector may no longer make sufficient electrical connections with the received circuit board, thereby causing the failure of these connections. This overheating may especially occur in connection with a voltage regulator module card that may communicate large currents to and from the card.
A conventional technique to prevent overheating of the slot connector includes increasing the sizes of the slot connector and associated circuit board (such as a voltage regulator module card, for example) to allow greater surface areas for the contact pads of the circuit board and the corresponding electrical contacts of the slot connector. However, due to the ever decreasing sizes of computer systems and the increasing power that is demanded by these computer systems, it may be desirable to minimize the size of the circuit board voltage regulator module card while providing sufficient thermal management properties for the voltage regulator module card.
Thus, there is a continuing need for an arrangement to address one or more of the problems that are stated above.